UPDATE: Meanwhile I received an "almost" production version (optically final, mechanically nearly final) with a significantly better lens coating. Please find the latest review here.

You
love to shoot at available light with a wide open aperture, razor sharp
details and smooth & creamy bokeh? You like shooting "half"
portraits at the classical viewing angle of a 50mm full frame equivalent but
you prefer using a mirrorless camera with an APS-C or Micro FourThirds
sized sensor? If you say 'yes' and 'yes', then SLR Magic may have a lens making you even more
addicted and enthusiastic with their upcoming HyperPrime CINE 35mm T0.95. It is
pushing the 35mm limit to a new level.

Before we go into detail, let me state that I am not
affiliated with SLR Magic. I am just a fan of fast & bright prime lenses and you
will see and read my pure personal impressions here. After
the launch of their spectacular HyperPrime CINE 50mm T0.95 (see my review here),
this small company located in Hong Kong decided to create another lens
with a similar design and now they presented their first two prototypes on the
"Photokina 2012" exhibition in Cologne, Germany. Andrew Chan, the product manager was so kind to give
me the chance to test-drive it a little bit on a Sony NEX-7 beside
their other new creations, the CINE 35mm T1.4 and the HyperPrime CINE
23mm T1.7. As SLR Magic is adressing filmmakers as well, these
lenses continue the tradition of a stepless aperture ring calibrated in
T-stops. Andrew explained, that beside the 35mm T0.95 using a complex 12
element design with extraordinary quality lens elements (some of them are
produced by Schott, Germany), they decided to build also a bugdet 35mm
T1.4 lens to be availably for a very reasonable price. You can see a short
review of the 35mm T1.4 and the 23mm T1.7 here as well.

So what
means T0.95? The aperture is calibrated in T-stops as film makers must
make sure that the light transmission keeps continous when changing
lenses at the same T-stop whereas F-stops only describe the calculated
ratio of focal length and how wide the lens can open. Due to vignetting
and other properties of the lens design, a T-stop of 0.95 typically
requires a F-stop of about 0.9 at open aperture which makes it the
fastest 35mm lens currently available for APS-C sized sensors. This is
possible due to an extremely large rear lens element with a diameter of
about 36mm. Due to that large rear element, the lens - although
manucatured with an M-mount, will not fit on a Leica M or a Ricoh GXR
with M module. But using an M-mount to E-mount/X-mount/m43-mount adapter, it can
be used on most APS-C and microFourThirs mirrorless cameras like Sony NEX, Fuji X, Olympus PEN, OM-D and Panasonic Lumix G. It may not fit into every M-adapter but the Novoflex M-to-NEX adapter as well as SLR Magic's M-to-NEX adapter (including a macro function) had no problem to accept that sample. The
following picture shows the prototype and it's affinity to the
HyperPrime CINE 50mm T0.95:

Looking
for an ultrawide angle lens covering fullformat image circle? We compared the new Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 15 mm f/2.8
with the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Aspherical and the Nikon AF-S
NIKKOR 14-24 MM F/2.8G ED. With an angle of view of 110° (114° at 14mm),
a fast F2.8 aperture
and a minimum distance of about 25-28 cm they allow dramatic
perspectives for
close ups and are suitable for architecture and landscape photography as
well.

During this review we will compare
resolution/contrast, chromatic aberration, distortion, vignetting and
bokeh on typical real world examples as in my opinion this is more meaningful than just comparing
technical data and charts. The shots were taken with the "pixel monster" Nikon D800E
who's 36 MP sensor currently provides the highest resolution for full
frame cameras and with the Sony NEX-7 using an adapter from Novoflex. If
you ask yourself "why putting such a lens on the NEX-7 ?", her is my
motivation: With it's APS-C sized sensor it provides the same crop
factor than the D800 in DX mode or a Nikon D7000 but with 24 mega pixels
and so it challenges the lenses regarding resolution even more than the
D800E (that provides about 15 MP in DX mode). With it's currently unrivaled EVF
and 11.7x magnification it is much easier to precisely adjust the focus
to it's optimum compared to the D800E's liveview - especially at bright
outdoor light conditions. Last but not least, the NEX system still lacks
of sharp and fast super wideangle lenses and adapting ultra wide angles
designed for Leica M-mount at the NEX-7 usually produces colorshift on
the borders.

Size / weight / build / operation

A first review for the Zeiss Distagon T* 2.8/15 you can find already here
so let's just sum up the most important technical data before we go
into the image comparison. The different sizes are visible above and the weight you will have to carry (with Nikon F-mount) is about proportional to
their sizes: ~550g for the 14mm Samyang, ~730g for the 15mm Zeiss and
approx. 1000g for the 14-24mm Nikon. All three candidates are equipped
with a chip delivering focal length and aperture information to the
camera and allowing aperture control also through the camera. Filters (92mm thread) can only be screwed to the Zeiss. All are of good build
quality, the Zeiss provides the best haptic and focus operation and comes with a metal lens hood. The
Samyang has the longest focus throw - for my taste too long. You may find the Samyang also in identical construction under different names like Walimex Pro, Rokinon, Vivitar, Bower etc. My sample
of the Samyang had a problem with the focus adjustment that is quite
often reported by other users as well for that lens: Infinite focus is
reached when the focus ring showed about 0.8m on the distance scale. In
that aspect my point goes clearly to the Zeiss Distagon.

Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2,8/15 mm - Ultrawide and Fast!

Looking
for an ultra wide angle lens covering fullformat image circle? Than you should take a closer look to the new Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2.8/15 mm. With an angle of view of 110°, a fast F2.8 aperture
and a minimum distance of 25 cm it allows dramatic perspectives for
close ups and is suitable for architecture and landscape photography as
well.

The manufacturer claims that with 15 elements in 12 groups (including two aspheric lenses and floating elemements design) this lens preserves very natural proportions with minimal
distortion, high contrast and exceptional sharpness. So it should harmonize perfectly well even with the latest 36 MP "pixel monsters" like the Nikon D800/D800E.
Due to the selection of special glass also chromatic aberrations are
nearly invisible and the T* coating is designed to reduce stray
light and reflections to a minimum. You can read an in depth review and comparison to two other ultra wide angle lenses here. It is available in two versions,
one with Nikon F-mount (ZF.2) and one with Canon EF-mount (ZE). Both versions
contain a chip that allows the camera to determine the focal length and
control the aperture, the ZF.2 version has an additional option to operate the aperture manually. Focus is operated manually with a butter smooth
focus ring with clearly defined start and end point, which is
interesting for filmmakers as well.

Due
to it's complex construction it is quite big but less bulky than e.g.
the Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 wide angle zoom lens. Although it is completely
made of glass and metal, it is surprisingly light - it weighs about 730
to 820g depending on the version and fits quite nice e.g. on the Nikon
D800E:

Some
weeks ago we announced a workshop titled "adorable 50s" that was
intended to compare a rich set of bright 50mm primes. Due to the crop of
APS-C and (Micro-)FourThirds sensors, these primes convert to typical
portrait focal lengths and provide the option to take photos indoor at
avalialable light without using a flash and to play with a thin
sharpness area. The comparison should allow you to judge sharpness &
contrast at open aperture as well as their characteristics how
out-of-focus structures in the background are rendered.

Here you find the results of the workshop but firsta fewwords about how it was managed: The workshopwas held inHamburgunder the directionofHelgeHackbarthtogetherwith the lovelymodel Lara-Dias.It included bothan indoor comparison shooting at"avialable light"as well asan outdoorcomparisonunder daylightconditions. A reflector was used in order to establishagood light balancebetween model and background - no flash at all!The locationswerechosen with a versatile background structure in order to be able to assess the rendering of the out-of-focusblur (creaminess,bokeh, etc.)as well as contrast and sharpness of the model in the foreground.

Unfortunatelythreeparticipants dropped out shortly,so that also some exciting lenses that were most welcome alongside the participants were missing (e.g.a LeicaNoctilux50/0.95ASPH, aVoigtlanderNokton50/1.1, a Canon 50/1.2LTM, a Minolta MD Rokkor 50/1.2 and a Jupiter 3 LTM 50/1.5).Nevertheless,alsothe remaining selection gives alreadya good overviewin whichsuchthe rathercheap andpopularOlympusOM/MinoltaMCRokkorcan be compared with upper end priced lenses like the LeicaSummiluxand a prototype of theSLRMagic HyperPrime 50mmCINET0.95.

The
lenses were attached to a Sony NEX-7, a NEX-5n, an Olympos OM-D (E-M5)
and a PEN E-PL1. For the indoor shooting we created a meaningful setup
in a nice bar:

But
pictures speak louder than words. All images you see here, were taken
with the Sony NEX-7 and processed from RAW with identical settings for
contrast and sharpnes. Just some minor adjustments of white balance were
applied. In order to see other sizes you may click on the images:

HyperPrime CINE meets Walpurgisnacht at Burgspektakel Bad Bodenteich

30th April 2012 - When on the medieval "Burgspektakel Bad Bodenteich", witches, elves, trolls and other mythical creatures come together to celebrate the "Walpurgisnacht" (the night before 1st Mai), it's the perfect moment to mount a bright lens like the SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE 50mm T0.95 on your camera.

All pictures were taken at open aperture (T0.95 / F0.92).

(Switching to fullscreen mode (left to the (i) button) is highly recommended)